Members of the Ferguson Fire Department rescued Poncho on Wednesday after the puppy became wedged in the pipe. The animal had been a gift for a boy one day earlier.

“They let the puppy in the backyard to play and apparently the grass has been cut and, in the process, the top of the drain pipe had been cut off so it was an exposed 8-inch PVC pipe,” firefighter Chad Forgue told KTVI. “The puppy walked over and went headfirst down.”

Forgue said his crew tried to lasso the puppy with a rope.

“We could see its tail and one back leg at the time and every now and then when the rope would hit him and he moved a little bit, so it kind of reassured us that he was still with us,” Forgue said. “We just weren’t sure if he was nose down in some water or if he was even at the bottom of the pipe. We didn’t want to knock him down any further.”

It took some time, but the firefighters were able to free Poncho.

“Just seeing the look on (the boy’s) face and that his puppy that he just brought home, the whole family was excited they return to them," Forgue told KTVI. "Sometimes we don’t get to see positives but this time we just so happen to.”

Terrence Mayhorn was born with encephalocele, a rare birth defect of the neural tube that affects the brain. He required surgery when he was 3 days old to drain excess fluid from his brain into his abdomen.

As his senior year at Grapevine High School ended, Mayhorn required more surgery, meaning he would miss his senior prom.

However, Mayhorn’s fellow students brought the prom to him, WFAA reported.

Mayhorn had been voted prom king, and last Friday nurses in the neurology unit at Parkland Hospital in Dallas decorated a meeting room to transform it into a prom ballroom.

The school’s prom theme was “Midnight in Paris,” so nurses included a cutout of the Eiffel Tower.

Mayhorn’s mother convinced him to put on a tuxedo, telling him he was going to have his picture taken. When he walked into the makeshift ballroom, he was surprised by the nurses and several classmates, who held a banner proclaiming him prom king and brought a crown for the coronation, WFAA reported.

"I'd like to announce that our class voted you as prom king,” student body president Lyon Lee said as his classmates applauded.

“We don't think it's because Terrence was special needs or anything. It's because he is a special guy," Lee told WFAA. “And the class recognized that and we all voted for him.”

"I'm just overwhelmed," said Terrence's mother, Sharon Okafor. "He's such a popular kid, and he's just so sweet. So, couldn't happen to a better person. He deserves it."

Dr. Jerome Adams posted on Twitter following the incident: “On my @Delta flight to Jackson, Mississippi (by way of Atlanta), and they asked if there was a Doctor on board to help with a medical emergency- why yes- yes there was. Patient doing well and like a good #USPHS officer, I was glad to be able to assist!”

A Delta spokesperson told The Washington Post that the incident happened before takeoff on board Delta Flight 1827, which was traveling from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Atlanta Wednesday.

The passenger lost consciousness before takeoff, according to the Clarion Ledger. The airline crew called for a doctor on board to help, at which point Adams and two nurses stepped in.

The passenger woke up. Adams said it was best for the plane to return to the gate so the passenger could be transported to a hospital for evaluation. Adams also called the passenger’s spouse to share what happened, ABC reports.

Delta praised Adams in a Twitter statement: "When the 'Doctor on board' is THE Doctor. Thanks for your service and assistance today @Surgeon_General."

The patient’s condition is unknown, although Adams tweeted the person was “doing well.”

Adams was traveling to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to discuss the administration’s response to the national opioid epidemic, the Clarion Ledger reports.

Adams is an anesthesiologist who was nominated to be U.S. surgeon general by President Donald Trump.

Craig Luttman told the Omaha World-Herald he saw the 8-week-old squirrels in a tree outside his home in Elkhorn and described it as a “tug of war” as they tried to get free.

The squirrels became tangled after getting caught in tree sap while they were in their nest, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

The Nebraska Humane Society said the squirrels were moving as a unit with their tails tangled together.

Animal control officers transported them to Nebraska Wildlife Rehab Inc. and were able to untangle the group at their center in Fort Calhoun.

The group’s executive director told the Omaha World-Herald she had to give the squirrels a mild painkiller and covered them with a towel to keep them calm. She described untangling the six tails to snipping away at a “ball of knotted twine,” which took about an hour.

It started with a flight like any other. Two kids met on a flight to Flint, Michigan from St. Petersburg, Florida. The kids didn’t know each other, but they appeared to be the best of friends in a now-viral photo that was posted last week, WNEM reported.

They walked through the airport after the flight hand in hand.

“It’s kids being kids,” Kenya Menzies, Shauntay’s mom, told WNEM. “When left to their own devices everybody is naturally nice.”

The device can be used to play Xbox One and Windows 10 PC games. It also supports Xbox wireless controller features, including remapping.

When it goes on sale, the adaptive controller will cost $99.99, according to Microsoft officials.

A select group of gamers were invited to test the device, Verge reports. The gamers said the controller makes it easier to create different setups for multiple games, allowing them to jump back and forth easily.

The new controller can be connected to external buttons, switches and joysticks with mounts that allow flexibility to customize to a player’s needs.

Gamers can also set up three different gaming profiles on the controller and don’t need to reset the device every time they switch games, which is common among modified controllers.

The product’s packaging includes several jacks on the back of the device to help people with dexterity challenges.

The controller’s rectangular shape is designed to sit in a player’s lap comfortably, so it doesn’t drop or force them to sit in an uncomfortable position.

The adaptive controller also includes threaded inserts that can be attached to a wheelchair, lap board or desk.

The edges of the controller are also rounded out to avoid injury if the controller is dropped on a foot, and the front edge is softer, so players can slide their hands into the device to rest comfortably without having to lift it.

Microsoft has been working on an adaptive controller since 2014, after a Microsoft engineer found a Twitter photo of a custom gaming controller created by Warfighter Engaged, a nonprofit organization that helps get wounded veterans access to gaming.

According to Microsoft, the organization’s founder described how difficult it was for amputees, quadriplegics and vets with traumatic brain injuries to access game controllers, and it inspired a group of team members to help make Microsoft’s controllers accessible to more people.

It was a match made in a war zone that now has a happy ending with a long-awaited reunion.

Sgt. Tracy McKithern found a small stray dog hanging around camp when she was deployed to Iraq last year. But it wasn’t uncommon to see dogs roaming the streets in Iraq. The dog and her mom were abused, kicked and hit with rocks. They were also starving, the Army said.

But the daily abuse didn’t stop the dog from greeting McKithern when she held out her hand.

“She loved everyone,” McKithern said. “She is the sweetest little soul. She came up to me immediately, probably hungry, but gentle. I think she was looking for love more than anything else.”

And it was love that she found.

McKithern, and soldiers from Italy and Germany who were attached to her unit, named the dog Erby Kaisma. Erby came from the city Erbil, while Kaisma is the Arabic name for “beauty and elegance,” according to the Army.

Over the following days and weeks, Erby started sleeping outside McKithern’s quarters.

But soon McKithern would have to return home. She posted to Facebook saying she wished she could take Erby with her. The next morning, with the help of friends and family, they got the ball rolling to get the thousands of dollars needed to bring the dog to America.

Complete strangers started donating too, with the help of Puppy Rescue Mission.

Then the work began. McKithern started making arrangements to get Erby the vaccinations, documentations and travel plans to get the dog shipped home. When it got overwhelming, Kurdish and German officers whom McKithern worked with helped get Erby’s paperwork submitted, according to Army reports.

McKithern returned to the United States without her beloved pup. But Erby was scheduled to follow a few weeks later.

After all that work, McKithern got orders for a 67-day mission in Wisconsin, forcing her to leave her Tampa home on March 11, the same day that Erby was supposed to land stateside.

Luckily McKithern’s husband was able to get Erby to Florida and have her waiting for McKithern when her two-month mission ended.

The long-awaited reunion happened this week, as McKithern returned home to the love of her canine companion, Erby, WFTS reported.

Erby’s mother is still back in Iraq and is being taken care of by the soldiers left behind. McKithern hopes that she can be adopted also, despite the high financial cost, WFTS reported.

A non-profit started by UCF students is helping children across the U.S. with missing limbs.

The central Florida-based group known as Limbitless will help launch the first U.S. clinical trial of bionic arms for children made on 3D printers. The group, which is based the University of Central Florida, is partnering with Oregon Health & Science University.

“We are so excited to feature some of the new work and talk about how it's going to have a huge effect on families all around the country,” Limbitless president Albert Manero told WFTV’s Ty Russell.

The clinical trial will recruit 20 children, primarily from the southeastern U.S. and Pacific Northwest, to be fitted with Limbitless' custom-designed bionic arms. Over the course of a year, the children will learn how to use the arms through occupational therapy.

David Platt thought Pearson could use some cash, so he tipped her $1,000, KFSM reported.

“It was late and there wasn’t really anybody around so I got talking to her a little bit,” Platt told KFSM. “We talked about the Lord and about her life and her children. I got the impression that she was having a hard time of it, so I thought I’d just help her out a little bit.”

The story of Platt’s good deed could end there.

But an hour later, he paid a second visit for pie.

He left a second $1,000 tip.

Platt said that the $2,000 in tips wasn’t planned but it was the right thing to do, KFSM reported.

“Money is just paper or numbers on a screen,” Platt told KFSM. “Self-gratification only goes so far. So, when you’re helping another person, you’re adding something to the world. It’s an investment and people, people are what’s important.”

Pearson has two stepdaughters and hopes to use the windfall to help them and their families, KFSM reported.

“I’m still kind of in shock,” she said. “What I’m taking away from this, and what everyone should take away, is that when you want something, like, nothing is impossible. You can always achieve something; (it) is just about the amount of effort you put in.”

Dakota’s mom asked the police department if someone would escort him to school, but never imagined that not one, not 10, but 70 officers and other supporters lined the sidewalk Monday to welcome Dakota back to his school, WTHI reported.

“It’s a brotherhood. It’s not like any other job you’re going to have. Guys are close. You form bonds that you wouldn’t form in a different profession. When somebody’s in need, we go, especially for a fallen officer and his kid,” Detective Less Hamm told WNDU.

The SWAT team gave Dakota his own SWAT shirt and badge.

“He will definitely know his dad was a hero. Blood doesn’t always make family and I think the blue family went above and beyond,” Dakota’s aunt, and his father’s sister, Kelly Jones, told WTHI.

Korryn Bachner, 15, a sophomore at Glenbard East High School in Lombard, was among a dozen teens injured last month when a boy poured gasoline on a bonfire during a weekend party.

Bachner suffered serious burns to her face and hands and was not going to attend her prom on Saturday. Her date, however, decorated the Bachners’ basement, and friends dropped in to visit before the actual prom started, WLS reported.

"There were tears," Korryn’s father, Bob Bachner, told WLS.

“Overwhelming doesn't seem like the right word anymore," said Korryn’s mother, Ellen Bachner.

While doctors expect Korryn to make a full recovery, it will take months, WLS reported.

Xia realized a dream that begin in 1975. On his first attempt to scale Everest, he lost his legs after lending a fellow member of the Chinese Mountaineering Team his sleeping bag. He suffered frostbite and had both legs amputated below the knee, Time reported.

Xia also tried to reach the summit four times in the past four years, Time reported. In 2014, climbing season was canceled due to an avalanche. A 7.8 earthquake that shook Nepal and causes more avalanches thwarted Xia’s attempt in 2015. In 2016, Xia came within 300 feet of reaching the summit when a blizzard forced him to abort the mission, Time reported.

“I love the mountain,” Xia told Time before his latest climb. “I will fight for it my entire life.”

Mark Inglis, of New Zealand, was the first double-amputee to reach Everest’s summit from the Tibet side in 2006, Time reported.

Fiona was born premature in January 2017 and received around-the-clock care. She weighed 29 pounds, which zoo officials said is well below a baby hippo’s typical weight. Hippos can grow to be 3,000 pounds.